How to create a WPF Window without a border that can be resized via a grip only

Question

If you set ResizeMode  CanResizeWithGrip  on a WPF Window then a resize grip is shown in the lower right corner  as below     If you set WindowStyle  None  as well the title bar disappears but the grey bevelled edge remains until you set ResizeMode  NoResize    Unfortunately  with this combination of properties set  the resize grip also disappears   I have overridden the Window s ControlTemplate via a custom Style   I want to specify the border of the window myself  and I don t need users to be able to resize the window from all four sides  but I do need a resize grip   Can someone detail a simple way to meet all of these criteria    Do not have a border on the Window apart from the one I specify myself in a ControlTemplate  Do have a working resize grip in the lower right corner  Do not have a title bar

User · Answer

I was trying to create a borderless window with WindowStyle="None" but when I tested it, seems that appears a white bar in the top, after some research it appears to be a "Resize border", here is an image (I remarked in yellow):

The Challenge

After some research over the internet, and lots of difficult non xaml solutions, all the solutions that I found were code behind in C# and lots of code lines, I found indirectly the solution here: Maximum custom window loses drop shadow effect

<WindowChrome.WindowChrome>
    <WindowChrome 
        CaptionHeight="0"
        ResizeBorderThickness="5" />
</WindowChrome.WindowChrome>

Note : You need to use .NET 4.5 framework, or if you are using an older version use WPFShell, just reference the shell and use Shell:WindowChrome.WindowChrome instead.

I used the WindowChrome property of Window, if you use this that white "resize border" disappears, but you need to define some properties to work correctly.

CaptionHeight: This is the height of the caption area (headerbar) that allows for the Aero snap, double clicking behaviour as a normal title bar does. Set this to 0 (zero) to make the buttons work.

ResizeBorderThickness: This is thickness at the edge of the window which is where you can resize the window. I put to 5 because i like that number, and because if you put zero its difficult to resize the window.

After using this short code the result is this:

The Solution

And now, the white border disappeared without using ResizeMode="NoResize" and AllowsTransparency="True", also it shows a shadow in the window.

Later I will explain how to make to work the buttons (I didn't used images for the buttons) easily with simple and short code, Im new and i think that I can post to codeproject, because here I didn't find the place to post the tutorial.

Maybe there is another solution (I know that there are hard and difficult solutions for noobs like me) but this works for my personal projects.

Here is the complete code

<Window x:Class="MainWindow"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
    xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Concursos"
    mc:Ignorable="d"
    Title="Concuros" Height="350" Width="525"
    WindowStyle="None"
    WindowState="Normal" 
    ResizeMode="CanResize"
    >
<WindowChrome.WindowChrome>
    <WindowChrome 
        CaptionHeight="0"
        ResizeBorderThickness="5" />
</WindowChrome.WindowChrome>

    <Grid>

    <Rectangle Fill="#D53736" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Height="35" VerticalAlignment="Top" PreviewMouseDown="Rectangle_PreviewMouseDown" />
    <Button x:Name="Btnclose" Content="r" HorizontalAlignment="Right" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="35" Height="35" Style="{StaticResource TempBTNclose}"/>
    <Button x:Name="Btnmax" Content="2" HorizontalAlignment="Right" VerticalAlignment="Top" Margin="0,0,35,0" Width="35" Height="35" Style="{StaticResource TempBTNclose}"/>
    <Button x:Name="Btnmin" Content="0" HorizontalAlignment="Right" VerticalAlignment="Top" Margin="0,0,70,0" Width="35" Height="35" Style="{StaticResource TempBTNclose}"/>

</Grid>

Thank you!

User · Answer

Sample here    lt Style TargetType  Window  x Key  DialogWindow  gt           lt Setter Property  AllowsTransparency  Value  True   gt           lt Setter Property  WindowStyle  Value  None   gt           lt Setter Property  ResizeMode  Value  CanResizeWithGrip   gt           lt Setter Property  Template  gt               lt Setter Value gt                   lt ControlTemplate TargetType   x Type Window   gt                       lt Border BorderBrush  Black  BorderThickness  3  CornerRadius  10  Height   TemplateBinding Height                               Width   TemplateBinding Width   Background  Gray  gt                           lt DockPanel gt                               lt Grid DockPanel Dock  Top  gt                                   lt Grid ColumnDefinitions gt                                       lt ColumnDefinition gt  lt  ColumnDefinition gt                                       lt ColumnDefinition Width  50   gt                                   lt  Grid ColumnDefinitions gt                                   lt Label Height  35  Grid ColumnSpan  2                                         x Name  PART WindowHeader                                                                                     HorizontalAlignment  Stretch                                          VerticalAlignment  Stretch   gt                                   lt Button Width  15  Height  15  Content  x  Grid Column  1  x Name  PART CloseButton   gt                               lt  Grid gt                               lt Border HorizontalAlignment  Stretch  VerticalAlignment  Stretch                                           Background  LightBlue  CornerRadius  0 0 10 10                                           Grid ColumnSpan  2                                          Grid RowSpan  2  gt                                   lt Grid gt                                       lt Grid ColumnDefinitions gt                                           lt ColumnDefinition  gt                                           lt ColumnDefinition Width  20   gt                                       lt  Grid ColumnDefinitions gt                                       lt Grid RowDefinitions gt                                           lt RowDefinition Height      gt                                           lt RowDefinition Height  20  gt  lt  RowDefinition gt                                       lt  Grid RowDefinitions gt                                       lt ResizeGrip Width  10  Height  10  Grid Column  1  VerticalAlignment  Bottom  Grid Row  1   gt                                   lt  Grid gt                               lt  Border gt                           lt  DockPanel gt                       lt  Border gt                   lt  ControlTemplate gt               lt  Setter Value gt           lt  Setter gt       lt  Style gt

User · Answer

While the accepted answer is very true  just want to point out that AllowTransparency has some downfalls  It does not allow child window controls to show up  ie WebBrowser  and it usually forces software rendering which can have negative performance effects   There is a better work around though   When you want to create a window with no border that is resizeable and is able to host a WebBrowser control or a Frame control pointed to a URL you simply couldn t  the contents of said control would show empty   I found a workaround though  in the Window  if you set the WindowStyle to None  ResizeMode to NoResize  bear with me  you will still be able to resize once done  then make sure you have UNCHECKED AllowsTransparency you will have a static sized window with no border and will show the browser control   Now  you probably still want to be able to resize right  Well we can to that with a interop call        DllImport  user32 dll   CharSet   CharSet Auto       private static extern IntPtr SendMessage IntPtr hWnd  uint Msg  IntPtr wParam  IntPtr lParam         DllImportAttribute  user32 dll        public static extern bool ReleaseCapture           Attach this to the MouseDown event of your drag control to move the window in place of the title bar     private void WindowDrag object sender  MouseButtonEventArgs e     MouseDown               ReleaseCapture            SendMessage new WindowInteropHelper this  Handle              0xA1   IntPtr 0x2   IntPtr 0                Attach this to the PreviewMousLeftButtonDown event of the grip control in the lower right corner of the form to resize the window     private void WindowResize object sender  MouseButtonEventArgs e    PreviewMousLeftButtonDown               HwndSource hwndSource   PresentationSource FromVisual  Visual sender  as HwndSource          SendMessage hwndSource Handle  0x112   IntPtr 61448  IntPtr Zero           And voila  A WPF window with no border and still movable and resizable without losing compatibility with with controls like WebBrowser

User · Answer

I was having difficulty getting the answer by  fernando-aguirre using WindowChrome to work  It was not working in my case because I was overriding OnSourceInitialized in the MainWindow and not calling the base class method   protected override void OnSourceInitialized EventArgs e        ViewModel Initialize this       base OnSourceInitialized e       lt    Need to call this      This stumped me for a very long time

User · Answer

If you set the AllowsTransparency property on the Window  even without setting any transparency values  the border disappears and you can only resize via the grip    lt Window     xmlns  http   schemas microsoft com winfx 2006 xaml presentation      xmlns x  http   schemas microsoft com winfx 2006 xaml      Width  640  Height  480       WindowStyle  None      AllowsTransparency  True      ResizeMode  CanResizeWithGrip  gt        lt  -- Content -- gt    lt  Window gt    Result looks like

[.net] How to create a WPF Window without a border that can be resized via a grip only?

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